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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Tracey Emin Neon Sculptures Up for Auction to Benefit the Museum of Contemporary Art

Tracey Emin sure must love Miami.
It's not just that this city is lit with neon, one of the British
artist's favorite mediums. Or that Emin selected Miami as the home of
her first works in the collection of an American Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art purchased Emin's video Why I Never Became a Dancer
in 1998. It's not just that that same museum will host the artist's
first solo show in a U.S. museum during Art Basel this year, either.
Emin and MOCA clearly have a long-standing relationship, and Emin's
proving it's anything but one-sided. Today, MOCA announced that Emin has
donated five of her neon works to be auctioned off to benefit the
museum.
The series of five sculptures, each one a glowing, 3-D version of the
word "Loving" scrawled in Emin's own handwriting, will go up for
auction by New York City auction house Philips on Nov. 6. There'll be a
live auction right on Park Avenue that evening (how very ritzy), but
interested Miami buyers can place bids via email or phone.
Not that you're going to win an original Emin, you shlub. In 2007,
her work was valued between $24,000 and $700,000, and Emin's fame has
only increased since then.
The auction is still good news for Miami art lovers, however; those
prices mean more funding for MOCA, which has a track record of
supporting fledgling artists (like Emin was in 1998) into prominent art
careers. As MOCA chairman Dr. Kira Flanzraich explains in a release,
"Tracey's remarkable generosity is indicative of the close ties that
MOCA engenders with its artists, many of whom have received their first
significant exposure in the United States with exhibitions at the
museum."